Candy Stripe Scoop – Is It Real? (Week Two)

Written by: TJ Inman

Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, IN)

When: Monday, November 9 at 6:30

How to Watch: FS1 (and in our forum here)

Opponent Glance: The Syracuse Orange are 2-0 head coach Gerry McNamara’s first campaign in charge. They opened with a 16-point victory over New Haven and then drilled Central Connecticut State 102-49 on November 5. During the exhibition season, Syracuse lost to UConn (72-52) and narrowly beat Siena. The Orange are led by Siena transfer Gavin Doty and Kiyan Anthony. Both are 6’5” guards or wings that are averaging better than 15 points per game. Jaeden Mustaf figures to draw the assignment on at least one of those individuals and the Hoosiers will probably lean on a variety of others to defend the second leading offensive weapon for Syracuse. The Orange have not been inclined to play a quick pace (299^th in adjusted tempo) so this probably won’t turn into a track meet but IU should have an advantage down low as Syracuse has some height but lacks the kind of bulk Indiana can throw at them with Samet Yigitoglu, Aiden Sherrell and Sam Alexis. IU’s defense has shown the ability to really bother opponents with length and size but the attention to detail on that end has been inconsistent thus far and DeVries will be needing to see 40 minutes of high-intensity defense in order to win.

Why It Matters: While Eastern Illinois and Bellarmine provided certain challenges in playstyle (particularly Bellarmine), this is the first regular season contest that IU is playing an opponent with legitimate power conference foes. Despite this game taking place significantly closer to Bloomington than Syracuse, this game does count as a neutral-site contest. That means Syracuse doesn’t have to be amazing for this game to still end up a Quad One contest and it will almost definitely end up at least in the Quad Two category. In addition, for IU fans that are holding out interest until Darian DeVries’ team beats someone of significance, this is the first “check-in” game that could grab the attention of the fanbase.

Game Two

What: Indiana Hoosiers vs. Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles

Where: Assembly Hall in Bloomington, IN

When: Thursday, November 12 at 6:30 pm

How to Watch: BTN (and in our forum here)

Opponent Glance: The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles enter this contest at 2-1 and they are ranked 200th in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings. While this is very likely to remain a Quad Four contest all season, the Golden Eagles are in the Southern Conference (Furman, among others) and are a very capable opponent, particularly on offense. In the season-opener, they scored 88 points on Mississippi State in a loss and they followed that with 117 points against Blue Mountain. The Western Kentucky squad that gave IU quite a bit of trouble in the exhibition finale? The Golden Eagles just handled them relatively easy on Sunday.

You may remember Tech’s head coach: Tobin Anderson. This is his first year with the program but he rose to prominence as the head coach of Fairleigh Dickinson as the Knights stunned number one seeded Purdue in one of the biggest NCAA Tournament stunners ever. Anderson was the head coach at Iona for three seasons and spent last season with Bryan Hodgson at South Florida before taking this position. His offensive strategy is simple: get looks from the perimeter and pull the trigger. Through two games, the Golden Eagles are shooting more than 40 three pointers per contest. That will be a different style than IU has seen thus far and it should be an interesting test to see how the Hoosiers deal with it. Tennessee Tech is a quick team but they don’t have much size and Indiana should be able to exploit their height advantage all evening. Make no mistake, IU will need to be sharp for this contest.